I have an early 2000's DS series cart. My Power Drive 2 charger stopped working. I went through the troubleshooting I found here (Thanks ALOT!) and found a bad relay in the charger. The cart is an hour away from home so since I didn't know if I could get a relay quickly, I plugged in my 3 amp/trickle/desulfator/charger to try to get the batteries back up to full charge. I know it may take a while at only 3 amps, but it was my only option until I got the Power Drive fixed. I didn't want to leave the batteries at 50% because I didn't know how long it would take to get my relay. I now have the Power Drive 2 fixed and ready to use, but the 3 amp charger has been on the cart for 36 hours.

Should I reset the OBC before I plug the Power Drive back in as the OBC doesn't know I've been charging at 3 amps for 36 hours and might want to overcharge the batteries?

BTW, my serial number is 4A0437-768125 and looks to be a factory "Lynx". Club car couldn't tell me what "year" it was but all indications is that it is a 2000 rebuilt some time later into the Lynx. Can anyone shed any light on what I really have?

Today

BGW

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O.K. I reset the OBC on the cart. While the 3 amp charger was on the batteries, the battery indicator was at about 1/2 on the gauge. Once I reset the OBC and connected the Power Drive 2, the gauge went to full and the charger did not turn on.

I checked the 48v output from the OBC using Tahoedog's troubleshooting steps and it checked out o.k. I got 48v at the relay terminals. We checked the charger on a known "good" cart and it worked. If the OBC was giving me 48v to the relay and the charger is known "good", what other problems would you suspect? Is it possible that the 3 amp charger pulled the batteries to full charge and that the Power Drive senses that and won't charge full batteries? How would you expect the charger to operate after reset and before driving the cart anywhere?

Clarification. I checked the OBC output before charging with the 3 amp charger. I did not check it after I repaired the Power Drive. I didn't do anything to the cart except attaching the 3 amp charger, including driving it, so I wouldn't expect any different outcome if I checked the OBC output to the charger relay now. I did check both fuses on the receptacle, the yellow, in-line fuse and the fuse mounted to the back of the plug. Both checked out good. We know the relay was bad as it didn't work on a known "good" cart, but did work after we replaced the bad with the good relay.

The output voltage of the charger is much higher than the pack voltage, which means regardless if You just finished charging the pack, when You plug the charger to the cart, it will always come ON and the current will go to MAX.

If the batteries are fully charged, the OBC will quickly reduce the current, but You should always expect to see the charger come ON and current flow into the batteries.

I am going on the assumption the charger is working fine based on Your comment of just testing it on a good cart.

Do You hear the relay clicking?

If not and instead of disconnecting the pack negative You disconnected the pack positive (resetting the OBC), make sure You connected the red wire that goes to the charger receptacle back to the pack positive battery post.